Thursday, April 13, 2006

Turn it over to the boys

Well, It was our first try at turning the program over to the boys and it was a huge disaster. We tried to encourage them to plan a campout and to plan a booth at the Scout O Rama. All they could do was make jokes about having a kissing booth. So, nothing was planned, nothing happened and I was frustrated. I tried to tell them that they need to be in charge and that they need to plan the event and if they didn't, then it would fail. Well, still nothing happened.

After the 1 hour of goofing off and no decisions, I talked with the other Venture Leader and we decided to turn it over to them a little at a time. If they don't follow through on their assignments then it would fail. Failure is part of the learning process so we need to let them fail so that they know that it is their program. We need to get to the point were the leaders (adults) will just supervise and help here and there but we want the boys to run the program.

So, after the disaster, the other leader found the boys and assigned them the tasks of food and of the booth. If they don't follow through with the food, then I guess we don't eat. If they don't follow through with the booth, then I guess we just sit in chairs at the Scout O Rama.

On a positive note, I am trying to think outside the box on the Scout O Rama. A Venture Crew is not a normal Scout Group. We are above and beyond a regular Scout Patrol. I have come up with 2 great ideas for our campout. I have suggested that we have a Trampoline at our campsite and I think I have come up with a BLOCKBUSTER idea for where we are going to sleep. I am going to borrow 3 diesel trucks from my dad that owns a truck driving school and our crew will sleep in the sleeper cabs of the trucks. I think this idea will BLOW EVERYONE AWAY and hopefully set a tradition that Crew 60 is a Venture Crew to watch because we are "OUT THERE"! I am excited to present this to the Crew for approval.

Our Scout O Rama booth will be a "handicap awareness" booth so we are borrowing wheel chairs and we will have activities where Scouts can learn the difficulties of navigation while using a wheel chair. We have a person in our ward that is in a wheel chair that we are hoping will help us out. This satisfies a venturing Bronze Award requirement as well as a DTG.